Lord Admiral

My current "dream" line is a modular elf's treetop city. I would design around that type of theme. Otherwise, I have a number of set ideas for the Pirates theme. Different-sized ships, for one, and more factions.

I'm not sure about that. It seems with these figures, and really, with several other sets, that there's a de-emphasis on building. The custom heads, for example, is one such example. The longer legs is another (unless you're interested in integrating a circus clown into your set). And if the larger brimmed hats aren't compatible with any other minifigure head, then it's rather pointless. But there's an overall de-emphasis of building in licensed sets in general. The UCS sets are really the only sets whose emphasis is on the building. That's not as big a big deal as you'd think though, especially in this case, when we're just seeing the minifigures and not even the actual sets. I think the big deal is the sheer amount of customization, i.e. the custom heads and longer legs. I've personally never liked custom heads (e.g. Chewbacca), and I even have reservations about the dwarf legs. While maybe other people whom are into licensed sets are ok with at least Chewbacca, I think these seem over the top even for them. Personally, such customization--heck, any custom pieces--reeks of laziness or cost-cutting and puts me off right away. Custom pieces appear in place of genuine ingenuity (i.e. use the dwarf beard and normal head for the prospector, make Woody and Jessie normal-sized and increase the height of the hat, and use a bald minifigure head for Buzz). I'm cynical like that. I don't mind new minifig tools, but custom bricks irk me, and custom minifig pieces really don't sit well with me. But to be honest, even if I didn't have such a cynical outlook, these cartoon-like oversized figures just don't seem like Lego minifigures, and that I think everybody who doesn't like Woody and Jessie can agree to that... There's a reason why the 4+ sets never caught on. (Also note that there's no backlash against the POP minifigures with regular heads and normal legs.) Granted, these are prototypes. I don't expect them to appear exactly as is when TLG releases the sets for real. But if they insist on going the 4+ route with these sets, then I'll have to insist on keeping my purchases to a minimum, i.e. sets that don't have the custom heads.

Wow, I just noticed the fleshie arms on a few of the POP minifigures. And what's up with the figure in desaturated blue? The camel should have 2x1 studs in the middle, where I guess a saddle would (or not) go. As for the 2x2 studs on the ostrich, they made me think of chocobos initially. They'd just need to be dipped in yellow. Hopefully though, the final version will be able to move their necks or something.

Personally, I would prefer a bucket of these guys, like they are in Toy Story. ;)

I'm looking at those hats, and the only thought I have is whether they'll fit on a normal minifigure's head. None of the heads appeal to me (even the martian), but I don't think it has anything to do with the hat. I think for Woody in particular, the scale is a bit off. He's kind of creepy, now that I take a good look at the head some more, as is Jessie albeit less so. The prospector, whose hat is even wider, looks OK though.

I'm definitely digging the toy soldiers. The extra-tall figures, like woody, jessie (?), and Zurg don't appeal to me, but Buzz looks promising. I'm surprised they don't have a Rex yet, as they already have dinosaur molds from the dino attack line. I'm not surprised they don't have a Mr. Potato Head or Etch. I'm kind of disappointed there's no Bo Peep with her sheep or the penguin. And I'd love to see Sid's toys too. The POP figures are nice too, but the new animals are what really shines. I don't know much about the POP franchise other than the Sands of Time game, so I can't tell how well the figures are done. But they'd look good in a generic setting, which I think is what most people are excited about. I know these are probably prototypes and subject to revision. I can't wait to see how things turn out. Oh, and maybe it's because of the indoor lighting (or lack thereof), but the photographer of fbtb's pictures opened up the lense too much. The depth of field is too shallow. It makes for a nice picture, but it's headache-inducing for people who're trying to examine the subjects in detail.

It depends on the set, really. With the smaller sets, I pull the pieces straight out of the bag when I'm building. With bigger sets, I may or may not sort the pieces. I tend to only sort pieces if the color scheme is fairly monotonous (bley, light bley, dark bley, white, black) and if they're spread out in more than five unnumbered bags. Actually, I don't like the numbered bags too much, but it isn't a rational dislike so I'm not going to go into it. I can keep track of around five bags, give or take. I don't spill either. I just find and pick the piece inside the bag. It's probably not as efficient as spilling and sorting, but I like building sets that way.

I don't keep track of my sets, so I'm estimating around 50,000 total. I do know that just in the past 2 years alone, I've enough extra pieces to fill up two small bags, and this isn't including the sets I haven't unboxed, and sets where I've found a use for the extra pieces.

Yes. It's hard not to, when they're so small, there are so many, and they're everywhere. They get into the salt, the sugar, even the boiled tap water that's left out to cool. You can wash most of them out of the vegetables, which they crawl into in the fridge, but there's never any guarantee you've got them all. I'll occasionally find them in the leaves of vegetables just before putting it into my mouth, but only if I'm looking really carefully. It's really better not to think about it and just enjoy the food. Absolutely hate centipedes. But millipedes are really cool and completely harmless. I used to pick up the small ones and let them crawl in my hand, and they'll slowly make their way across my palm and fall into my other hand. When they get scared, they'll roll up into a ball like a pillbug. Then you can just roll them around like tiny dice. Centipedes now, they're aggressive little buggers. They'll definitely bite you if you try to pick them up.

That's a decent discount. Any FOL's dream, I'd imagine. Of course, it's only a dream, since it'd be difficult to buy sets even after the discount and still make a living on the wages.

That is pretty gross--not the part about the poison or getting it all over, but the part about stored mouse food and droppings. I had mice once a long time ago, but they never bothered my sets, since I kept them high above the floor on a shelf. They can't get onto a shelf if they can't climb up there and they can't fall down onto it. I did used to have the occasional roach, but those are so prevailent in the apartment, I wouldn't be surprised if I've killed more of them by ingestion than acts of violence. The big roaches though, can get to the size of a minifigure. Had Men In Black been out at the time, I would've been tempted to make a MIB MOC. Sadly (or maybe thankfully), there are far fewer roaches now, mostly little guys, and not at all interested in my Lego. That is absolutely hilarious. Funnier even, that the chickens were following the road down the middle instead of crossing it. ;) I can just see the chickens, walking down the road as giant birds of death, pecking at the minifigures and buildings, and then furiously squawking after one of the buildings topples over, causing other buildings to fall over, and in turn causing more flapping and squawking. Hilarious.

Congratulations, everybody! EB seems to have quite the congregation of community leaders.

Towards the back of the instruction manual of most sets, there's often a short comic. Also, there are comics in the club magazine (or was it the brickmaster magazine?). They're by no means an entire book, but they're quick reads that occasionally offer brief amusement. There have been actual books for Bionicle and Knights Kingdom 2 that I think came either in a set or a brickmaster issue. I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's a comic for Lego Batman and KK1 as well. edit: Sorry, I misread. You were referring to comics about the pirates line in particular, while I'm talking about Lego comics in general.

Ah, it doesn't matter how much they're paying as long as it's above minimum wage. The real question is what kind of discount you'll get working there. And whether your bonus can be paid in exclusive sets. :D

Oops! Good catch! That's what I get for being lazy and not spelling out the number; one wrong key and it's suddenly 10 years older.

BSB is a nicer ship, with a better design. But BB would beat it in a fight, hands down. BSB has 2 cannons on each side, which means only two are functional at any one time in a naval showdown. But BB can bring all three cannons to bear down upon its enemy, and it is covered when chasing or being chased. Though, it's also pretty easy for an idiot captain to shoot his own ship with that third cannon. Besides, while BSB may have more pirates, BB has the govenor's daughter as a hostage on board. Now that's an impressive feat!

Any tavern in the pirate line better have an old, washed-out, drunkard former captain whose sole purpose of existence is to scream at other patrons when they get too close... *ahem* I mean, it better have an old sea dog that's telling minifig children warstories. I want more ships. Pirate ships, imperial ships, merchant ships, privateer ships, it doesn't matter. Schooners, flutes, frigates, corvettes, sloops, clippers, cutters, carracks, caravels, galleons, brigs... Heck, it'd be perfect if they had ships at every price point, from a small dinghy to a 5-masted, $150 galleon. Actually, I wouldn't like it so much, because my wallet would be hurt afterwards. I can come to like structures, but I'd much prefer ships. Besides which, I'm kind of on the fence about these new baseplate-less structural sets. I know they're supposed to be on water or something, but I would've been nice to have had a medium-sized or large blue baseplate included with the set.

It is soap and water for me as well. I actually try to keep as much of the sets intact as possible. So I'll split the set into chunks, dip the chunk in to soak for a bit, pull the chunk out, dip it back in in a different orientation. I repeat, changing the orientation each time, until I'm satisfied. Then I rinse afterwards by dipping the chunk into clean water, and pouring water onto it. Sometimes, I'll rinse it a second time with clean water. Hot water is a must, but it doesn't have to be scalding. It's a bit tedious, but it usually works very well. Soaking and rinsing only once will clean all of the surface bricks. To clean the bricks in between, a few more dip and pull repetitions would be necessary. But I figure, if water can't get in between the bricks, chances are, dust and such will have a hard time getting in as well, so I don't bother most of the time. And it seems OK.

If they're not coming out with elves to refresh the castle line, then that's probably going to go away. I think Agents is gone. This second wave hasn't been nearly as good as the first wave, and I think they're either running out of ideas, or winding the set down. Coast guard as well, is slowly being phased out. I'm not sure about Power Miners, but I'm guessing there'll be a smaller third wave, and that'll be all. There are certain themes that aren't going anywhere, but won't get another wave for a while. Pirates I think is one of them, as well as police and fire. I think it's about time they retire Belville and replace it with modular town, but I'm not going to hold out on that happening. It's been around for 25 years, and if TLG was going to get rid of the line, they would've done so years and years ago.

There are plenty of non-action words that are just as appropriate for describing sets. The somewhat ironic thing is that the more action-oriented a set's theme is, the less the set has to be marketed with action words. The point of an action-oriented name is so that people know that some kind of action is happening in the set. If a theme naturally has action in it, directions on how to play wouldn't really be needed. Though, some such sets still are marketed with action words regardless. For example, Agents sets have artificial action in them, and hence most sets need the name. It isn't necessary at all for the "good" element to be opposed to the "bad" element. But they're placed in the same set and given an action name, so that the "good" guy has to somehow be doing something to the "bad" guy as a result of the "bad" guy doing something bad. In reality, well, I'm still kind of baffled by what exactly the two sides in Agents have to do with each other. Let's look at the sets... Jetpack Pursuit: a jeweler riding a snowmobile is being chased by a guy in a helicopter backpack; Swamp Raid: some obnoxious guy on a bike barges into a treehouse in a swamp; Gold Hunt: a fighter jet is chasing after a guy carrying a lot of gold in his trunk; Speedboat Rescue: some guy picking up his girlfriend after she's done with...well whatever she's doing swinging from a bouy in the middle of shark-infested waters; Turbocar Chase: a car drives by a gate and a helicopter comes out to meet it; Mobile Command Center: exactly what it says it is; Deep Sea Quest: there's a submarine and a ship seeking the same treasure; Volcano Base: exactly what it says it is; Gold Tooth's Getaway: someone trying to take a gold dinosaur from somebody else; River Heist: after barging into the treehouse, guy tries to steal the safe inside while the owners try to escape via their airboat; 4-Wheeling Pursuit: guy knocks down gate with a bigger car; Robo Attack: a nerd showing off his new robot toy gets harassed by the cool kids; Aerial Defense Unit: somebody tries to sneak into volcano base via the back. All I'm seeing is the orange guys constantly getting picked on by the agents, and considering it's happening in every set except two, one would think the leader of the orange guys stole the girlfriend of the lead agent or something. OK, I have to be fair; Robo Attack actually shows civilians getting attacked, whereas the other ones only have the agents abusing and bullying the guys in orange. Is it because their outfits are orange? Anyway, my point is that there isn't any natural emnity between the two, so the action has to be inserted through marketing. On the other hand, pirates have natural action in the theme, and doesn't need artificial action in the sets or in the set names. Pirates can be working against the imperials, or the islanders. Or, they could be working together. Or, they could be doing completely separate things (pirates vs. pirates, red coats vs. blue coats, etc.). There's action naturally in that theme, and so it doesn't really need any direction as to what action is in the set, hence only two sets that have any action words in the name, and only one of those has any forced action. The same applies to castle. As there are multiple factions in castle, any side could be allied with, or fighting against, any other side. And it doesn't have to be explicitly stated, though it's sometimes implied. Of course, nobody says that sets have to have action in them. But action sells well to the core demographics. Gold Hijack? Gold Harvest? Gold Haul?

Ships, definitely; the name says it all. In fact, I like ships so much I've also picked up the two ships in the castle line. And, I plan to get the exclusive pirate ship from the SW line. I see 'pirate' in the name and any resistance I might have to buying it goes right out the door. There's nothing wrong with fortresses and other land structures. But I'm a ship fanatic, specifically sailing ships.

Neither, though I will refer to the captain that comes with the classic pirates set as Red Beard (as in Red Beard Runner). I have 3 or 4 old captain minifigures (as well as several new captain minifigures), and they all have distinct identities. Can't have a pirate council if it's entirely comprised of one pirate.

I consider all of the backstories, comics, etc. as separate from the set. I don't believe in such a thing as "canon" when it comes to Lego, much less accept any supplemental material as such. This applies even to minifigures names', though I may use them out of necessity, i.e. when referring to a specific minifigure. The comics will occasionally offer me amusement, but I rarely find that they're interesting. Though, I must admit I found your description of the comic in question more amusing than disconcerting. To be precise, the story itself seems more than a bit silly, but the way you pointed out the silly parts did make me chuckle.

I say no. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with back printing, though the sack that's printed in the back does factor into my answer. It doesn't make sense for them to have both a backpack and an ammunition sack in the back. If say, there was a separate ammunition pack piece, then a backpack would be acceptable. As a backpack doesn't match the current design, I say no. However, I would like backpacks on my imperial minifigures, if the back printing allows for it, and I would prefer a backpack piece over the back printing entirely. I'd even trade the epaulet for the backpack, though ideally, the epaulet would be for the officers and the backpack would be for the peons.

Great review! It was sufficiently thorough enough for me to get a good feel for this set. I like the two baddies ships. The vehicle and the SP ship don't impress me though. And while the base has numerous nifty elements, it still manages to feel cheap and empty. The emphasis of this set is definitely play more than build. There are a lot of elements that look nice (stickers for fine detail, special pieces, lots of colors), and play nice (hidden compartments, traps, missiles), but don't seem to build nice. I could probably put my G.I. Joes here, and they'd feel slightly cramped but nonetheless right at home. And I think I'm getting too old to be running around with G.I. Joe action figures going "pew pew pew." I have to wonder if the manager this theme was pulled from Hasbro or Mattel or something. I could go on, but it's kind of depressing how this neo-space/space revival is turning out. Looking at some of the vehicles, I'm starting to feel it's going to be another Alpha Team Arctic. On the other hand the two baddie ships in this set are nice. In fact, the ships can stand on their own without the decals, which other than the big SP ship, is unique to the SP3 line thus far. As such, the decals end up making the ship look just a little gaudy. But I'd rather the vehicles be able to stand on their own than require the decals to avoid looking bland (like the other SP3 sets). I'd definitely buy just the two ships, if offered separately. edit: fix ubb code